There is a connection between all religious extremist groups centered around an absurd idea that their raison d’être on Earth is to act on their deity’s behalf. It is a particularly dangerous situation when religious extremists take their archaic religious book literally whether it promotes stoning adulterers and disobedient children, or praying for the death of some perceived enemy. Now, it is certain that praying for someone’s demise will not result in the target falling dead on the spot, but publicizing the “prayer” specifically to alert the extremists who will act to facilitate the targets demise will result in “premature death.”
In the Christian religion there is a specific type of supplication to god (prayer) to cause the premature death of a perceived enemy known as “imprecatory prayer.” They are basically appeals to god to strike down an enemy because they have committed some kind of sin against the god of the Christian bible, and according to America’s evangelical faithful, a sin against god is a sin against them. In this particular imprecatory prayer case, the perceived “sin” is the Military Religious Freedom Foundation’s (MRFF) 22-page complaint against Air Force Brigadier General John Teichert for violating several laws by operating a “secret online ministry.”
The complaint alleges serious violations of Air Force regulations stemming from the general’s evangelical online ministry. It is noteworthy that the complaint was “filed on behalf of 41 clients, 32 of whom are self-identified Christians,” and that Teichert’s “secret ministry” is a violation of federal government and military rules on proselytization. No doubt evangelical extremists will claim their religious liberty is being violated by expecting an Air Force general to abide by the law of the land as well as military code.
As the MRFF complaint letter notes, by not including a disclaimer in his “secret” online ministry, General Teichert explicitly “infringes several articles of the United Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and Supreme Court rulings restricting the First Amendment rights of military personnel.” The letter states, in part:
"MRFF submits that Brig. Gen. Teichert's publicly posted remarks demonstrate his discriminatory animus and overt condemnation of all personnel under his command who do not share his personal and particular dominionistic brand of Christianity. For those members of the 412th Test Wing at EAFB who are, e.g., agnostic, atheist, Hindu, Jewish, Mormon, Muslim, humanists, secularists, etc., his conduct at issue here, 'seriously compromises [his] standing as an officer.'"
That exposure by Michael Weinstein and the MRFF was too much for an extremist evangelical group, Capitol Hill Prayer Partners (CHPP), connected to U.S. Senate and Chaplain Admiral Barry Black (ret). They took the “imprecatory prayer” route to “troll for assassins” to do what they know their god will not do; strike down Michael Weinstein and destroy MRFF. As he has done in the past, Mr. Weinstein correctly “described such imprecatory prayers as code words used by the Christian far right to troll for assassins, or at least to legitimize possible acts of violence.”
As anyone, including this author, who has been the recipient of “imprecatory prayers” and subsequent threats and acts of violence can attest: Mr. Weinstein is right to “view this as a clear and present threat against me, my family and the foundation, and we take it very seriously.” One MRFF staff member did take the threats personally and resigned last week. As Mr. Weinstein noted, the staffer quit "because of pressure from his or her family over the threats that these individuals face, even in their own homes, for being connected with MRFF." And, Weinstein added, “that was before the emergence of this potentially threatening prayer.”
It is almost certain that the threats have increased due to Trump pandering to and emboldening the religious right since even before his poorly attended inauguration. In fact, since Trump has been in the White House, the religious right has ramped up its Dominionist crusade to take over all aspects of American society, including the federal government and the military. The religious right sees MRFF as a hindrance to its effort to transform the United States military into a federally-sanctioned force of “onward Christian soldiers,” and that is by no means an exaggeration.
Mr. Weinstein is going to enlist the aid of MRFF’s legal counsel to issue a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell demanding that the Senate, specifically the Office of the Chaplain of the United States Senate, break off its affiliation with an “evangelical terrorist group.” According to MRFF’s director of research and author of “Liars for Jesus,” a survey of evangelical revisionist (fake) history, Chris Rodda said the Capitol Hill Prayer Partners enjoys “semi-official” status on Capitol Hill. Any kind of official status granted to a religious group by any part of the federal government is a violation of the 1st Amendment.
Add to that atrocity, according to the online biography of the hate group’s founder and president Sara Ballenger, Capitol Hill Prayer Partners (CHPP) "has served in on-site prayer under the full blessing of the Office of the Chaplain of the United States Senate" since 1994. Michael Weinstein said that besides a letter to McConnell, the current Senate Chaplain, retired Navy Admiral Barry Black will receive a copy in hopes the military preacher man will do the right thing and separate the U.S. Senate from the evangelical hate group. Weinstein said:
"We intend to have our legal counsel send a demand letter to the majority leader of the U.S. Senate, Mitch McConnell, demanding that they completely disengage with this fundamentalist Christian terrorist organization. The U.S. Senate should not be engaged with someone like this, asking god to kill people and destroy them.”
There is little doubt, at least to this author, that Capitol Hill Prayer Partners is a terrorist group or it would not issue a call to arms disguised as an imprecatory prayer for Mr. Weinstein and MRFF staffers’ demise. Remember, the monsters who publicly called and prayed for Doctor George Tiller’s assassination did not murder Dr. Tiller while he was in church. And the savages who called and prayed for the demise of Planned Parenthood employees did not shoot and kill three people at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado. The people who vandalized this author’s vehicle and home were not those who prayed that “some brave warrior for Christ” would put a permanent end to “attacks on Christians” in the local newspaper. All of those acts of violence and vandalism were committed by maniacal evangelicals who heard the call to action whether it was a published imprecatory prayer or a Fox News contributor wondering why no-one is taking action.
It is highly likely that the religious extremists attempting to transform the U.S. military into a Christian army regard the Military Religious Freedom Foundation as their greatest enemy; an enemy that has to be stopped. It is also likely that the U.S. Senate chaplain, himself a retired high-ranking military officer and Christian, is well aware of the Capitol Hill Prayer Partners’ terrorist threat to MRFF and Michael Weinstein – an organization he likely believes has to be stopped and for a damn good reason. There is no other outfit working tirelessly to protect members of the armed services from a growing threat against Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Heathens, Buddhists, secular humanists, agnostics and atheists who regularly face “discriminatory animus and overt condemnation” because they fail to conform and support the religious right’s Dominionist Christianity.